This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9B project to build the Barclays Center arena and 15-16 towers at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park Brooklyn in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake going forward. As of 2018, after the arena and four towers were built, Greenland will own 95% of future construction.

U.S. State Department protests use of official in marketing "Atlantic Yards III" EB-5 investment to Chinese, gets mention cut from promotion

Also see coverage of the misleading video used in Atlantic Yards III promotion.

From the Qiao Wai web site, last week

The promoters of the "Atlantic Yards III" investment, aimed at immigrant investors seeking green cards in exchange for cheap loans, have provoked a slap on the wrist from the U.S. State Department, which asked them to stop claiming that a top State Department official supported the project.

Last week, in an article, on Twitter, and in queries to the State Department, I asked whether it was appropriate for Rivkin to be portrayed as supporting "Atlantic Yards III."

It is a $100 million slice of the overall Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project, marketed under the EB-5 program, in which investors and their families get green cards by parking $500,000 in a low-interest loan for five years or so, as long as an economist's report suggests those funds create ten jobs. (The job-creation requirements are fuzzy, actually.)

Rivkin, as shown in the screenshot above right, got the most prominent placement in the promotion. It was, to my knowledge, the first time an active State Department official was portrayed as boosting an EB-5 program.

Now he's gone from the Qiao Wai web site, as shown in the screenshot at right, and Brooklyn Nets forward Mirza Teletovic, who has nothing to do with the EB-5 program but (duh) likes the Barclays Center, got a promotion on the page. Though the Barclays Center serves as the centerpiece of the promotion to immigrant investors, the arena has already been built and thus can't be the subject of the "Atlantic Yards III" investment.

Another misdirection involves the other three officials portrayed as supporting the project: former New York Gov. David Paterson, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

They're all out of office. And they praised the overall Atlantic Yards project, not this specific slice nor the previous two slices packaged for EB-5 investors, all of which come with their own separate business risks.

But the endorsement and presence of elected officials enhance a project in the eyes of potential investors from China and business ethics--in EB-5, in China--are often not a priority.

So the EB-5 promoters blur the difference. The promotion is the work of the Qiao Wai migration consultancy in China, which works with the U.S. Immigration Fund, a Florida-based regional center, a federally-approved entity to package the investments.

And the U.S. Immigration Fund works with Greenland Forest City Partners, the joint venture building Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, which is owned 70% by the Greenland Group, a Shanghai government-owned enterprise.

As I wrote: as with the second round of Atlantic Yards fundraising, a foreign government is profiting by marketing a scarce U.S. public resource--green card slots under the EB-5 program--to its own citizens. And that, as far as I know, is unprecedented.

Rivkin's claimed role

In the screenshot at top, Rivkin was quoted as offering vague support for the overall project:

"Held and invested in by Greenland Group, the New York Atlantic Yards project has promoted local economic development, improved local employment, enhanced local urban functions, and made remarkable contributions to local development."

It's unclear whether he said those relatively bland words, and if so in what context. (He did hold a meeting with Greenland and did speak at a conference concerning EB-5.) But even if he did, that wasn't an endorsement of the EB-5 investment.

"Assistant Secretary Charles Rivkin has not endorsed or advised on any specific visa application or process," Kerry Humphrey, Media Advisor, Economic and Business Affairs Bureau, Department of State, told me, in response to my query.

"Assistant Secretary Rivkin is a public figure and sometimes his photograph is used without permission," she added. "His picture on this website does not constitute endorsement. We have asked for it to be removed."

Humphrey explained that State Department officials in Guangzhou contacted both Qiao Wai, which works with the U.S. Immigration Fund, as well as the Association to Invest in the USA (IIIUSA), the trade association of regional centers, to remove mention of Rivkin.

Thus the IIUSA, at the State Department's request, removed Rivkin from its website, apparently this 6/26/14 post:

For those who have been waiting to join IIUSA’s trade mission to Xiamen, China – we have some excited new information to share. As part of IIUSA’s commitment to bringing exciting and cutting-edge programming to our conferences, we are proud to announce that Charles H. Rivkin, the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, will be a special guest to the U.S. delegation to CIFIT. Previously, Mr. Rivkin served as United States Ambassador to France and Monaco.

In response to my questions, Humphrey stated, "President Barack Obama has made it clear that the United States is 'open for business' and the United States warmly welcomes foreign investors to operate in our transparent, stable and open market."

That sounds like an overall endorsement of the EB-5 program and others drawing foreign investment. (Then again, note some new skepticism from the Migration Policy Institute.)

"We value the feedback we receive from overseas investors and others looking to do business in the United States," she added. And, apparently, they listen to feedback from those who see how such business can be hyped.

While that's part of the lawsuit, more prominent are claims of racial discrimination and retaliation, with black employees claiming repeated abuse by white supervisors, preferential treatment toward Hispanic colleagues, and retaliation in response to complaints.

Two individual supervisors, for example, are charged with referring to black employees as “black motherfucker,” “dumb black bitch,” “black monkey,” “piece of shit” and “nigger.”

Two have referred to an employee blind in one eye as “cyclops,” and “the one-eyed guy,” and an employee with a nose disorder as “the nose guy.”

There's been no official response yet though arena spokesman Barry Baum told the Daily News they, but take “allegations of this kind very seriously” and have "a zero tolerance policy for…

To supporters of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, it's a long-awaited plan for long-overlooked land. "The Atlantic Yards area has been available for any developer in America for over 100 years,” declared Borough President Marty Markowitz at a 5/26/05 City Council hearing.

Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, mused on 11/15/05 to WNYC's Brian Lehrer, “Isn’t it interesting that these railyards have sat for decades and decades and decades, and no one has done a thing about them.” Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco, in a 12/19/04 New York Times article ("In a War of Words, One Has the Power to Wound") described the railyards as "an empty scar dividing the community."

But why exactly has the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Vanderbilt Yard never been developed? Do public officials have some responsibility?

The bi-monthly Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Community Update meeting June 14, held at 55 Hanson Place, addressed multiple issues, including delays in the project, a new detente with project neighbors,concerns about traffic congestion, upcoming sewer work and demolitions, and an explanation of how high winds caused debris to fly off the under-construction 38 Sixth Avenue building. I'll have more coverage.
Security issues came up several times at the meeting.
Wayne Bailey, a resident who regularly takes photos and videos (that I often use) of construction/operations issues that impact residents, asked representatives of Tishman Construction if the security guard at the sites they're building works for them.
After Tishman Senior VP Eric Reid said yes, Bailey asked why a guard told him not to shoot video of the site, even though he was on a public street.

"I will address it with principals for that security firm," Reid said.
Forest City Ratner executive Ashley Cotton, the …

This graphic, posted in February 2018, is post-dated to stay at the top of the blog. It will be updated as announced configurations change and buildings launch. Note the unbuilt B1 and the proposed--but not yet approved--shift in bulk to the unbuilt Site 5.

The August 2014 tentative configurations proposed by developer Greenland Forest City Partners will change. The project is already well behind that tentative timetable.

How many people are expected?

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park has a projected 6,430 apartments housing 2.1 persons per unit (as per Chapter 4 of the 2006 Final Environmental Impact Statement), which would mean 13,503 new residents, with 1,890 among them in low-income affordable rentals, and 2,835 in moderate- and middle-income affordable rentals.

That leaves 8,778 people in market-rate rentals and condos, though let's call it 8,358 after subtracting 420 who may live in 200 promised below-market condos. So that's 5,145 in below-market units, though many of them won…

There are obituary notices in the Bowling Green Daily News and the Wichita Eagle, which state:
He was born in Wichita, KS where he attended public Schools and Wichita State University. He lived for many years in Brooklyn, NY, and was employed as a legal assistant. David's hobby was cartography and had an avid interest in Mass Transit Systems of the world. David was predeceased by his father, Kenneth E. Sheets. He is survived by his mother, Wilma Smith, step-brother, Billy Ray Smith and his wife, Jane all of Bowling Green; step-sister, Ellen Smith Alexander and her husband, Jerry of Bella Vista, AR; several cousins and step-nieces and step-nephews also survive. Memorial Services will be on Monday, January 22, 2018 at 1:00 pm with visitation from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm Monday at Johnson-Vaughn-Phe…

Notably, a lease valued at $40 million "upfront to lease up to 43 acres over 49 years... seems like a good deal on rent for the state-controlled property." Also, the Long Island Rail Road will expand service to Belmont.

That indicates public support for an arena widely described as "privately financed," but how much? We don't know yet, but some more details--or at least questions--have emerged.

An Aqueduct comparable?

Well, we don't know what the other bid was, and there aren't exactly parcels that large offering direct comparables.

But consider: Genting New York LLC in September 2010 was granted a franchise to operate a video lottery terminal under a 30 year lease on 67 acres at Aqueduct Park (as noted by Gov. Andrew Cuomo).

At right is a photo of a poster spotted in Hasidic Williamsburg right. Clearly there's an event scheduled at the Barclays Center aimed at the Haredi Jewish community (strict Orthodox Jews who reject secular culture), but the lack of English text makes it cryptic.

The website Matzav.com explains, Protest Against Israeli Draft of Bnei Yeshiva Rescheduled for Barclays Center:
A large asifa to protest the drafting of bnei yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel into the Israeli army that had been set to take place this month will instead be held on Sunday, 17 Sivan/June 11, at the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn, NY.
So attendees at a big gathering will protest an apparent change of policy that will make it much more difficult for traditional Orthodox Jewish students--both Hasidic (who follow a rebbe) and non-Hasidic (who don't)--to get deferments from the draft. Comments on the Yeshiva World website explain some of the debate.